Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-09-25
AMERICANS In LONDON.
Gossip of the Worlds Metropolitan In
teresting Letter.

LONDON, September % -lheies large
number of foolish Americans who are colt
tinually coming 10 Europe to seek work.
I hear of most touching stories of want and
suffering among people of this class. Con-
sul- General Waller said the other day that
he had heard of more pitiable cases of suf-
ferins since his occupany of office than he
had ever heard of before in his life. The
fact cannot be too widely published that
Europe is no place for American working
ipgmen of any class. If they come over
here with positions secured IN advance
thew still run the risk of being exposed in
the end to poverty and distress. Once
their places are lost it seems almost i'm
possible for them to get foothold again,
had yesterday given me one OF the worst
cases I have known for some time. 1t was
the story of an American electrician who
came over upon contract to engage IN
the service of the Edison Electric Company
in Paris. He had been in the service Of
the Edison Company in New York and
his papers show good record. He brought
with him his wife and two children. For
a time they Jared very we'll at Paris, but
then the French employees Of the company
set mp protest against the employment
of foreigners and the rebellion was so great
that he was dismissed. This electrician
had at that time some money ahead,
and instead of coming home with
il he came over 10 England and went to
the little village of Deal, where he set up
cigar and tobacco shop in small way.
He was wholly unprepared for the close
competition and the narrow margin Of
English trading, and so he soon lost his
money. Two weeks ago third child was
born. The wife and children are manag-
ing to maintain existence in this little
English village through the kindness OF
neighbors, while her husband is walking
the streets of London living upon chance
charity. He has been in the streets since
the LIST of June and has not money enough
to get back to his wife and children.
He has been making a despairing
effort to get work in London so
as to get back TO his people in the
United States. He recognizes now the
suicidal folly of workmen trying to CON-
pete here, where thousands are out OF en-
ployment and where thousands more are
suffering the extreme degradation Of abso-
Lutte want. The electrician told me last
night that he had spent the last month
out of doors. He had slept when he could
in Trafalgar Square. He had not known
what it was to sleep under root and good
shelter for six weeks. He is not drink
ing man. He told his story in quiet and
diquilied way and in tone Of defiant
courage, showing that his spirit was not
yet broken by his tremendous sufferings
and exposure. His case has called to the
attention of people who are willing TO come
to the rescue of deserving Americans and
he will doubtless be sent home. But he
is only ore of thousands who come over
here with bright ambition, hoping TO gain
new ideas in the way Of study, while at
the same time maintaining themselves
through their work. People who have
not enough capital to take themselves
home after trying the experiment Of seek
ing work here are counting the worst pos
sible of fates. Two or three days ago a
hollow-cheeked, dark-eyed young man,
not over twenty-five, came into the World
Office and told me his experiences. He
was designer in Brooklyn and received
fairly good pay in the line Of industrial
and decorative art work. He came to
London to better his fortunes and Is now
walking the streets, sleeping in Trafalgar
Square, hoping against hope TO be able to
get place where he can make enough
money to pay steerage passage back to
the United States.
The competition in Europe among the
wOrkiDgmen is SO fierce and the wages are
80 low in comparison with those in our
country that it is hard to understand how
any intelligent workingman would venture
to come here without careful investigation.
There are thousands OF men in London out
of work. For every vacancy there are
hundreds and hundreds of applications.
For three or four dollars week you can
command the services of university under
graduate. Trafalgar Square every night is
| filled with poor men and women who have
no homes. They fill the benches, and in
one of the lower corners, sheltered from
wind, they lie upon the hard pavement
stretched out in long lines two or three
hundred in number. The majority Of these
people are tramps and Migrants, but there
| is large percentage Of we'll educated and
skillful workmen among this army of out
casts. This electrician whom | mentioned
in the outset Of my letter said that great
difficulty in his way was that he never
could get to see any one. He was ready to
any kind of work, but the heads of all the
establishments visited by him are absolute
ly inaccessible to the applicant for work.
This crowd Of people in Trafalgar Square,
which have mentioned in former letters
contains also number of the criminal
classes, who use the square as a meeting
place for night marauding. The Strand,
after o'clock, is patrolled by street bIi-
gands. The newspapers, for the past two
or three days, have contained numer-
Gus cases OF robbery in the street after !
o'clock. The police apparently hold
the theory that respectable people have
no business to be in the streets after mid
night, and those who are out after that
time must look out for themselves. The
work Of the brigands are women. One of
the leading shopkeepers in the Strand, who
resides over his shop, says hardly night
passes that some one is not robbed directly
in front of his place. His shop is within
five minutes Of Scotland Yard, the Police
Headquarters. The female street brigands
travel in pairs. They nearly always attack
elderly men. These women are strong
and active. They will pounce upon the
elderly stroller or unsuspecting country
man as quick as flash, under some pre-.
text Of fond endearment, and then will
snatch out his watch or pocketbook and
make of with il before he is quite CON.
scious Of what they are trying to do. The
police who parade the Strand pay no At
tention. Since the Miss Cass case the Do
lice will not touch any of the women who
walk the streets of London for criminal
purposes, unless their victims are willing
to prefer charges and to appear in court
as prosecutors. Not one in q hundred
of these victims but who would
rather n0ckef tho loos than m